At our house, we use an Advent calendar to celebrate the days leading up to Christmas.
One of our Advent activities this year was to make pine needle body oil from our Christmas tree.
This kid-friendly project will likely turn into a yearly tradition in our house.
So, before you throw out your Christmas tree, I’ve got a great easy recipe for you using its needles.
Otherwise, you can use the pine needles from any coniferous tree to make this lovely winter oil.
Gather a basket-full of needles on your next forest bathing outing.
(Pin me! Here’s a PDF version)
Pine Needle Body Oil
Supplies
- One clean, lidded glass jar
- Enough pine, fir, or spruce needles* to fill the jar (ours was a Balsam fir)
- Mild oil, such as olive or almond oil
*Note: you want to make sure the evergreens you harvest don’t get sprayed!
Directions
- Pull the individual pine needles off the branches, place in a fine strainer, rinse, and let dry.
- Then, fill your jar within an inch of the top with the pine needles, lightly compressing and muddling the needles with a chopstick or spoon.
- Pour oil over the needles until the jar is full or the oil covers an inch above the top of the needles.
- Label the jar and place in a cool, dark place for a month, shaking every so often.
- After about 30 days, strain the needles from the oil and discard the needles. Bottle the infused oil.
- Voila, your very own evergreen body oil!
How to use your pine needle body oil
I like to use evergreen body oil in a number of ways:
Self lymph massage. Just look up “lymph massage techniques” on YouTube and you’ll find plenty to get you started. Did you know your lymph system doesn’t have any sort of “pump” to drain its fluids? Most of the movement happens through movement (exercise), but you can improve drainage with massage. My favorite technique is to rub around my ears, down the back of my neck, and around the front of the neck to the collarbone.
Sore muscle relief. The coolness of evergreen oil feels great on achy muscles while the massage encourages blood flow to the area to help it heal. It smells way better than Bengay too!
Child foot massage. One of my favorite ways to soothe my kids is to give them foot rubs, especially right before bed or after football practice. The cooling effect of the pine oil targets those achy tootsies. There’s just something about a foot massage that guides the kids into a relaxed state of mind and something so sweet about the nurturing process of a foot rub.
Congestion chest rub. Evergreens have great sinus-clearing qualities. You could add a few drops of eucalyptus oil to a palmful of your evergreen oil and rub it across your chest for relief reminiscent of Vick’s.
Partner massage. Evergreen oil has a gender-neutral fragrance that’s perfect for either partner. Back rubs with evergreen oil are a great segue-way into intimacy.
Learn more about herbal body oiling here. I refer to Amber’s podcast often about herbal body oiling and love her description of how the absorption of fats nourishes the skin and nervous system. She also sells some really magnificent body oils and remedies (the elderberry elixir saves us every cold and flu season). #notsponsored
Handmade evergreen oil is a sweet gift for a personal friend or family member.
Otherwise, keep a bottle in your own apothecary.
This effective oil is worthy of the rudimentary or well-practiced herbalist. Almost everyone has access to pine needles and they offer too many healing benefits to ignore.
You can also use the oils to enjoy the benefits of forest bathing in the winter.
I’ve talked before about the tree that keeps on giving, and this is another pure example of that. Another way to utilize the gifts that our precious trees offer us.
Have fun!
From my roots to yours,
~Jess
P.S. if you make a jar, I’d love to see it! Tag @ForestBathingCentral on Instagram with your concoctions.